Eva Simms
I am a phenomenologist and study the psychology of the child in its historical and existential dimensions, and investigate such philosophical themes as embodiment, co-existentiality, spatiality, temporality, and language in light of their appearance in early childhood. I am the author of the book The Child in the World: Embodiment, Time, and Language in Early Childhood (2008) and of numerous articles on childhood, Goethean phenomenology, Rilke’s existentialism, and eco-psychology and the psychology of place. My research and writing is grounded in the work of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
Living on a ridge above the Monongahela River with my husband Michael and my children I try -- in daily practice -- to cultivate my perception and care for the natural world.
Address: Duquesne University, Psychology Department
Pittsburgh, PA 15282
Living on a ridge above the Monongahela River with my husband Michael and my children I try -- in daily practice -- to cultivate my perception and care for the natural world.
Address: Duquesne University, Psychology Department
Pittsburgh, PA 15282
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Books by Eva Simms
The qualitative empirical data consist of written protocols and transcribed interviews with veteran U.S. military dog handlers. The transcripts were interpreted using a psychological phenomenological method. The relationship between soldiers and dogs evolved through the development of mutual trust, reliance, and interdependence, eventually leading to the soldiers gaining greater confidence in their ability to function in the combat environment. They developed a sense of being accompanied and understood by another living being, which made it possible to relax following periods of intense anxiety. Through the dog, they experienced a pronounced awareness of the sensory landscape. The dog, as an extension of the handler's body, allowed for a deeper sense of the present time as it unfolded as well as of the future time as it was approaching. The dogs became a necessary tool in the performance of the soldiers' work, but were also experienced as living beings capable of engaging in a prolonged and varied relationship, which led the soldiers to a deep sense of responsibility and care for another living being, as well as for their own self. The military dog-handlers identified with their dogs and felt empowered to survive and save other lives because they and their dogs were a well attuned working team. When, after the Vietnam War, the dogs were decommissioned and destroyed, the soldiers experienced a profound sense of loss and bereavement regarding the fate of their dog.
The U.S. military has traditionally viewed working dogs as basic equipment, a distinction which means that, like other ancillary military equipment, the dog can be destroyed at any time if and when the military deems it no longer useful. This tenet perpetuates the historical view of animals as machines that have little value beyond their means to perform a specific task. However, this limited perspective ignores the physical, psychological, and social implications that the experience of having a relationship with a working dog has for the human handler. This study provides an inside view of the complex psychological relationship between soldier and military working dog, and suggests a revision of military guidelines which takes the psychological nature of human/canine interaction into account.
Introduction
Chapter One Milk and Flesh: Infancy and Coexistence
Chapter Two The World’s Skin ever Expanding: Spatiality and the Structures of Child Consciousness
Chapter Three About Hens, Hands and Old Fashioned Telephones: Gestural Bodies and Participatory Consciousness
Chapter Four The Child in the World of Things
Chapter Five Playing at the Edge: What we can Learn from Therapeutic Play
Chapter Six Because we are the Upsurge of time: Towards a Genetic Phenomenology of Lived Time
Chapter Seven Babble in the House of Being: Pointing, Grammar, and Metaphor in Early Language Acquisition
Chapter Eight The Invention of Childhood: Historical and Cultural Changes in Selfhood and Literacy
Notes
Bibliography
The Child in the World builds a bridge between continental philosophers, who tend to overlook child existence, and developmental psychologists, who often fail to consider the philosophical assumptions underlying their work. In this volume, author Eva M. Simms draws on both psychological and phenomenological research to investigate child existence in its cultural and historical context and explore the ways children interact with the world around them.
Simms examines key experiences of childhood with special attention to the non-dualistic nature of the child’s consciousness and the understanding that there is more to the child’s experiences than cognitive processes. In chapters that proceed from infancy to early childhood, Simms considers how children live their embodiment, coexist with others, experience the spaces and places of their neighborhoods, have deeply felt relations to things, grasp time intuitively and often in contradiction to adult clock-time, and are transformed by the mystery of the symbolic order of play and language.
Simms’s approach is particularly informed by the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, which allows for a descriptive and grounded understanding of child experience as well as sophisticated and critical philosophical thinking about human existence in general.
By respecting and celebrating the magical non-dualistic relationship child consciousness has to the world, The Child in the World offers readers a unique opportunity to expand their understanding of human existence. Students and teachers of psychology and philosophy, early childhood educators, psychotherapists, as well as general readers who are parents of young children will enjoy this fascinating volume.
Papers by Eva Simms
The qualitative empirical data consist of written protocols and transcribed interviews with veteran U.S. military dog handlers. The transcripts were interpreted using a psychological phenomenological method. The relationship between soldiers and dogs evolved through the development of mutual trust, reliance, and interdependence, eventually leading to the soldiers gaining greater confidence in their ability to function in the combat environment. They developed a sense of being accompanied and understood by another living being, which made it possible to relax following periods of intense anxiety. Through the dog, they experienced a pronounced awareness of the sensory landscape. The dog, as an extension of the handler's body, allowed for a deeper sense of the present time as it unfolded as well as of the future time as it was approaching. The dogs became a necessary tool in the performance of the soldiers' work, but were also experienced as living beings capable of engaging in a prolonged and varied relationship, which led the soldiers to a deep sense of responsibility and care for another living being, as well as for their own self. The military dog-handlers identified with their dogs and felt empowered to survive and save other lives because they and their dogs were a well attuned working team. When, after the Vietnam War, the dogs were decommissioned and destroyed, the soldiers experienced a profound sense of loss and bereavement regarding the fate of their dog.
The U.S. military has traditionally viewed working dogs as basic equipment, a distinction which means that, like other ancillary military equipment, the dog can be destroyed at any time if and when the military deems it no longer useful. This tenet perpetuates the historical view of animals as machines that have little value beyond their means to perform a specific task. However, this limited perspective ignores the physical, psychological, and social implications that the experience of having a relationship with a working dog has for the human handler. This study provides an inside view of the complex psychological relationship between soldier and military working dog, and suggests a revision of military guidelines which takes the psychological nature of human/canine interaction into account.
Introduction
Chapter One Milk and Flesh: Infancy and Coexistence
Chapter Two The World’s Skin ever Expanding: Spatiality and the Structures of Child Consciousness
Chapter Three About Hens, Hands and Old Fashioned Telephones: Gestural Bodies and Participatory Consciousness
Chapter Four The Child in the World of Things
Chapter Five Playing at the Edge: What we can Learn from Therapeutic Play
Chapter Six Because we are the Upsurge of time: Towards a Genetic Phenomenology of Lived Time
Chapter Seven Babble in the House of Being: Pointing, Grammar, and Metaphor in Early Language Acquisition
Chapter Eight The Invention of Childhood: Historical and Cultural Changes in Selfhood and Literacy
Notes
Bibliography
The Child in the World builds a bridge between continental philosophers, who tend to overlook child existence, and developmental psychologists, who often fail to consider the philosophical assumptions underlying their work. In this volume, author Eva M. Simms draws on both psychological and phenomenological research to investigate child existence in its cultural and historical context and explore the ways children interact with the world around them.
Simms examines key experiences of childhood with special attention to the non-dualistic nature of the child’s consciousness and the understanding that there is more to the child’s experiences than cognitive processes. In chapters that proceed from infancy to early childhood, Simms considers how children live their embodiment, coexist with others, experience the spaces and places of their neighborhoods, have deeply felt relations to things, grasp time intuitively and often in contradiction to adult clock-time, and are transformed by the mystery of the symbolic order of play and language.
Simms’s approach is particularly informed by the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, which allows for a descriptive and grounded understanding of child experience as well as sophisticated and critical philosophical thinking about human existence in general.
By respecting and celebrating the magical non-dualistic relationship child consciousness has to the world, The Child in the World offers readers a unique opportunity to expand their understanding of human existence. Students and teachers of psychology and philosophy, early childhood educators, psychotherapists, as well as general readers who are parents of young children will enjoy this fascinating volume.